Introduction
The Relationship Ruler is a valuable social-emotional learning concept that helps students understand how to act around different people based on their relationship with them. This blog post introduces the Guess What Happens Next activity, which can help students practice using the Relationship Ruler to navigate various social situations. By engaging in this activity, students will learn how to identify the level of closeness between individuals and make appropriate choices in their interactions.
No-Prep Activity
The Guess What Happens Next activity is a simple, no-prep exercise that can be easily incorporated into your lesson plan. To conduct this activity, follow these steps:
- Divide your students into small groups or pairs.
- Present a series of hypothetical social situations to the students. You can either describe these situations verbally or use short video clips.
- After each situation, provide three possible choices for how the characters in the scenario might react.
- Ask the students to discuss within their groups or pairs which choice is the most appropriate based on the Relationship Ruler.
- After students have made their decisions, reveal the correct answer and discuss the reasoning behind it.
This activity encourages students to think critically about the relationships between people and how their level of closeness should guide their actions and conversations.
Discussion Questions
After completing the Guess What Happens Next activity, use these discussion questions to stimulate further conversation and reflection:
- Why is it important to consider the level of closeness in a relationship before taking certain actions or engaging in conversations?
- How does understanding the Relationship Ruler help us build stronger connections with others?
- Can you think of a time when you misjudged the level of closeness in a relationship and acted inappropriately? What did you learn from that experience?
- How can we apply the Relationship Ruler to online interactions and social media?
- What strategies can we use to improve our ability to assess the level of closeness in our relationships with others?
Related Skills
Understanding the Relationship Ruler is just one aspect of social-emotional learning. Other related skills that can benefit students include:
- Active listening
- Empathy
- Conflict resolution
- Effective communication
- Boundary setting
Developing these skills can help students navigate their relationships with greater ease and contribute to their overall social-emotional growth.
Next Steps
Are you interested in exploring more activities and resources to help teach the Relationship Ruler and other social-emotional learning concepts? Sign up for free sample materials from Everyday Speech, which offers a wide range of engaging and effective educational content designed to support the social-emotional development of students. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to enhance your teaching toolkit and make a lasting impact on your students’ lives.
